“Only In Dreams” by Weezer

"Only in Dreams" is the long goodbye at the end of Weezer's 1994 self-titled debut, the tenth and last track, and at 7 minutes 59 seconds it's still the longest thing the band has recorded. On the surface it's a song about pining for a girl you'll only ever get in your sleep; Rivers Cuomo later told Rolling Stone it was really about his own artistic process, whatever the fans assumed.

The payoff is the back half, a three-minute build in which Cuomo and Brian Bell's guitars, Matt Sharp's bass and Patrick Wilson's drums climb together, layer on layer, until a guitar solo cracks the whole thing open. Cuomo has credited that stretch to Phish and Trey Anastasio, whose shows and tapes he loved. Ric Ocasek produced it and Chris Shaw engineered, and Bell and Sharp sing alongside Cuomo.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.